When you become pregnant, there can be a desire to learn as much as you can about birth, this includes the process of birth as well as how it feels, what emotions you may have and advice. Unfortunately, due to families being much farther apart than they used to be and it not being quite as common for women to talk openly about their birth experiences and be involved with each others birth, this knowledge can be difficult to track down.

In all of my blog posts my aim is to provide you with knowledge and information and if you are concerned about your birth day, then I aim to reframe your view of how calm and gentle birth can be. Since helping people with their births, one of my biggest concerns has been the accessibility of some of the natural birth footage which may cause someones anxiety about birth to increase rather than decrease. A perfect birth can never be promised by anyone, but you are so much more likely to have a calm and gentle birth if your exepctation of birth is positive, rather than negative. As these videos can result in a birth experience which is not what mum or baby would have wanted, this story or video is then replayed and the cycle continues, resulting in less positive birth experiences and greater opportunity for intervention.

This is why I have been trawling Youtube and other similar video sites for natural birth footage which will embed a positive expectation and decrease your anxiety about birth. Some of these video's are collections of photos and others contain footage of actual natural births. All of them are wonderful to watch and incredible examples of inner power, strength and the amazing ability of a mum and baby to work together so intuitively. So pop to the loo, grab yourself some refreshments and sit back and join these women on the most amazing journeys of their lives.

Yours for calmer births, more often,

Photo credit: benmcleod

It was the middle of the day when Shirley started to go into labour. She had already transferred to the birth unit where she was to give birth; it was comfortable and familiar to her. As labour progressed she chose to walk around and get into whatever position she needed to in order to help the birth process. She was left alone so she could listen to her body and baby and do whatever she needed to birth calmly and gently.

People looked on in awe of her and what they were seeing, but nobody intervened in any way, she was completely protected in her birth environment. She felt safe, secure and in control. As the moment of birth came closer, she knew she needed to change positions and she was completely free to do so. There were no monitors, no noisy machines and no white coats to be seen. There were no examinations, no dilation cm's to be achieved within a set time frame, labour just progressed exactly as it needed to.

She intuitively knew how to breath her baby down and there was no forced pushing and absolutely no sounds of discomfort. She birthed her baby extremely gently; a beautiful natural birth. The baby stayed with her mum and they bonded. There was no cleaning or wiping, just mum and baby sharing that beautiful unique moment.

You might think that this wasn’t typical of births, however for Shirley and her friends and family at Combes Farm this is a regular experience. Now you've read the story, why not watch the birth video and see for yourself. I'm sure you'll agree that we can learn so many things from watching calm, gentle, natural births, even when the circumstances are not quite what you first perceived.

Yours for calmer births, more often,